Henrique Ferreira, a freshman music performance major from Cerquilho, Brazil, experienced West Texas snow for the first time in his life shortly after he arrived in the United States.
“I arrived here without knowing anything,” Ferreira said. “I just arrived knowing my violin teacher and that I would study here, but I didn’t know anything about international services and what is guaranteed to students.”
Ferriera isn’t alone in either experience.
But thanks to a combination of Ferreira’s violin professor, Dr. Rossitza Jekova-Goza, who helps him find other students to connect with, and West Texas A&M University’s International Student Office, Ferreira feels confident he can navigate school and life in Canyon, Texas
“[My professors] are always available to help and all my friends too,” Ferreira said. “So this makes me feel comfortable, even though it’s my first time outside my home. Everyone here makes me, from the first day I arrived, everyone makes me comfortable here.”
Between 1.7% and 2% of WT’s students are international students which is about 200 for the fall and spring semesters. Nationally, there are over 1.1 million international students enrolled in colleges and universities.
According to a 2023 report published in the Sage Open journal on the challenges faced by international students worldwide, international students typically struggle the most during their first year as they adjust to a new environment and often a fairly new language.
Mental health challenges are also prevalent among international students, according to the report, primarily from stress related to migration and college life, which can sometimes be resolved by connecting with their home culture in some way.
While international students who don’t speak English as their native language typically have to take some kind of English proficiency test before they can enroll, many students still need help with language-related challenges.
“Sometimes there are some words that I can’t understand yet because I know a bunch of words, but not all of them,” Ferreira said. “So there are some expressions or words that I still don’t know, but as we have Google Translate and everything nowadays, if I don’t know, I just put it there.”
Yuto Takuma, a senior business major from Okinawa, Japan, also uses a translation app, which doesn’t always work well. This makes it difficult to fill out official documents like visa applications and schoolwork.
“As an international person, I understand how difficult it can be to adjust in a new country,” Evgeny Zvonnikov, WT’s Harrington lecturer in violin, said. “I had people in my life who helped me, so I return that.”
Zvonnikov, alongside his colleague Jekova-Goza, help connect international students inside the music department by attending concerts in the panhandle and surrounding areas like Santa Fe and hosting pizza party get-togethers for students in the music program.
According to Jeremiah Jakpa, a senior finance major from Warri, Nigeria and a student-athlete, similar programs exist in the Paul and Virginia Engler College of Business and some of WT’s sports programs.
The International Student Organization also works to alleviate some of the stress from incoming international students.
“When a new student is coming to the school, the person probably doesn’t have any idea about how to go about their way or how to settle in at WT,” Gladys Essel, the president of the ISO, said. “So they connect them to us, and then we help them with the process. Instead of wondering about, we help them make their incoming year more comfortable.”
One way the ISO does this is through its WhatsApp group, where international students can easily communicate with each other. Takuma, Ferreira and Jakpa said that the WhatsApp group chat makes international students feel more welcome and comfortable at WT.
Of course, these efforts by students and faculty aren’t a magic bullet to curing the stress and unease of college life as an international student. According to Essel, it isn’t always easy for international students to feel like they belong at WT.
“People wouldn’t want to associate themselves with you because of where you’re coming from, you don’t look like them, and you are definitely not like them,” Essel said. “We should give the same opportunity to each of the students, because we all have something unique in us. It shouldn’t be because of your country or where we are coming from; it should be that we are giving everybody the same opportunity to feel at home.”
Despite the differences and difficulties international students face when interacting with domestic students, Zvonnikov encourages his students to interact with them as much as possible.
“It will improve their language and help them go through the barriers,” Zvonnikov said. “But of course, all students are individuals, and it takes everyone a different amount of time to adjust.”
Despite the stress Ferreira felt as a student new to college and in a brand-new country, December’s snowfall won’t be the last West Texas winter that he’ll experience and soon he’ll be in a position to help students who are in the same place he was just a few months ago.
“I didn’t really help anyone, as I’m a freshman, so I don’t have this opportunity yet,” Ferreira said. “But probably in the next semester or next year, I’ll do this, because I feel like having someone to help you helps a lot.”
